“We are enormously grateful to Prosound for their support of the Festival this year. This kind of industry support is important to the Festival in so many different ways. The first is the obvious budget relief; we are able to provide top of the range equipment to our artists without blowing the budget sky high, something which for us is becoming worryingly easy to do. The next is the impact that it has on the technicians, of the 150 individuals who come to Grahamstown to work on the Festival many of them are just starting out and giving them constant exposure to new technology and professional advice is vital for their growth as theatre practitioners. Several of the artists and designers expressed their gratitude to us for giving them exposure to new equipment that they would otherwise not have access to – a festival environment being one of the best pressure testers in the industry it really does show off the full capabilities of exceptional equipment.
I was especially excited by the increased support from ETC for this year’s Festival. I have always been a fan of their control systems and having such fantastically solid and stable lighting consoles in such key venues went a long way to ensuring a smooth festival experience for our presenting artists. Of course this would not have been possible without the incredible support from Jannie de Jager whose calm and professional approach goes a very long way to soothing often festival-stressed creative minds.

The LED fixtures provided for Vicky’s were an incredible success. There was admittedly a little concern before the Festival from some of the less experienced artists performing in the venue that a LED rig would be able to give them the effects that they were after, these were quickly laid to rest and I think the units were given a very positive showcase. From our perspective it was fantastic to be able to provide the artists in Vicky’s with a more substantial rig, something that has not been possible to date given the severe power constraints of the building.

I very much hope that 2015 will be the start of a new and exciting partnership between Prosound and the National Arts Festival.”